FEBRUARY 9, 1998:
Sometimes trips grow out of the strangest of moments. For
Halloween last year, I dressed up as Mark Twain. I was talking to Shaggy, from Scooby-Doo,
and I told him I was going to make a trip to the northeast. Shaggy said, Dude, you
should go to Elmira, New York. Theres a whole Mark Twain scene there, and hes
even buried there.

Ive launched journeys on far less
than that, so I went through Elmira to look for Mark Twain. He came from Hannibal,
Missouri, and lived primarily in Hartford, Connecticut, (in a house modeled after a
steamboat) but his summer home was in Elmira. He did much of his writing there, including
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, in a study above the house, and many a famous photo was
taken of him sitting on the front porch there, smoking a pipe. Hes buried in Elmira
in his wifes family plot. Hannibal and Hartford claim Twain as their
own, my host in Elmira told me. But weve got the body.

We started our tour of Mark Twain Country, as the signs all over town
declare it, by driving up the hill to the house. Along the way, we passed concrete
watering troughs that Twain had built for his horses, each one bearing one of his
childrens names on it. The house itself stayed in the Langdon family (Twains
wife was a Langdon, and theyre still all over Elmira) for years until it was donated
to Elmira College.

Mark Twains octagonal study has been moved from its original location to the campus of the local college.Photo by Paul Gerald

All the furnishings and books are original
 even the chairs on the front porch  but unfortunately the college
doesnt let the general public in. In fact, theyre downright uptight about it:
Even my host, a professor there for over 26 years, couldnt get us in. Its
reserved as a living and working space for Twain scholars, but occasional talks are given
there, and on those days the house opens up to visitors. So if you plan on making your own
Mark Twain pilgrimage, call ahead and schedule it around a talk.

Our next stop was Twains study, which
used to be up by the house but was moved down to the college campus in town. Its
octagonal, about three paces wide, with windows on all sides, a small fireplace, a table,
and two chairs. What more does a writer need, aside from a day job? These furnishings are
original, too. Its an awesome thing to lay your hands on the table at which
Huckleberry Finn was written. Theres a photo on the wall of Twain sitting in a chair
by the fireplace, and right there by the fireplace is the very same chair.

We passed a church that my host said Twain
went to, at least when he went to church, which wasnt often. The
familys townhouse, a lovely old Langdon-family Victorian, was right across the
street, but now its a strip mall.

Finally, we went to his gravesite to pay
our respects. Hes buried in a fairly simple cemetery, not nearly as aesthetically
pleasing as Elmwood in Memphis. Other famous inhabitants include Ernie Davis,
who won the Heisman Trophy at Syracuse, and Hal Roach, the filmmaker who gave the world
the Little Rascals.

Twains grave is a simple one, with
just the name and dates. Next to him are his wife and all four of his kids. Its sad
to read the dates, since Twain outlived his wife and three of his children. One odd thing
about the grave is that theres this big pillar with his face etched in it, and the
word Twain. But right underneath that is some other guy who nobodys ever
heard of. It took us a minute or so of scanning the graves to figure it out, but this
character turned out to be the fellow who married Twains lone surviving daughter. It
seemed a bit precocious to have him up there with Americas greatest writer, but
Ill assume that the daughter put it there to honor her husband and her father
together. I hope it wasnt her husbands idea.

The cemetery is sort of interesting on its
own, because part of it is a national cemetery. There was a POW camp in Elmira during the
Civil War, so there are lots of Southern folk buried there, but of course theyre
separate from the Yankees. There are even people who died in the French and Indian War
there, so the place goes back a ways.

The thing I remember most about Twain in
Elmira is that there was an odd sense that he was still around, or at least that he
hadnt been gone for long. There are still a couple of people around who knew him,
for example. One is a woman in her 90s who can remember when her mom used to work at the
house and would take her along. She says she remembered sitting in Twains lap while
he told her and the other kids stories. For what its worth, I also saw a Mark Twain
Laundry, a Mark Twain Deli, and a Clemens Square. Kids playing baseball in Elmira graduate
from the Huck Finn League to the Mark Twain League.

Oh, and while were on the subject of
local history: Tommy Hilfiger, the clothes guy, is from Elmira. And you can tour the
factory where they make Steuben Glass up the road in Corning. I thought I should get that
in.

Theres plenty of other great stuff to
do in that part of New York, and Ill spend the next couple of columns telling you
about them.